Another Domino Drops: Lula Emerges Victorious in Brazil
The ‘pink tide’ continues. With Lula’s return, most of Latin America’s major economies are now run by left-leaning leaders.
Brazil’s electoral authority said Sunday that Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the leftist Worker’s Party defeated incumbent Jair Bolsonaro to become the country’s next president.
With 98.8 percent of the votes tallied, Mr. da Silva had 50.8 percent and Bolsonaro 49.2 percent, and the election authority said Mr. da Silva’s victory was a mathematical certainty.
Mr. da Silva — the country’s former president from 2003-2010 — has promised to restore the country’s more prosperous past, yet faces headwinds in a polarized society.
It is a stunning return to power for Mr. da Silva, 77, whose 2018 imprisonment over a corruption scandal sidelined him from that year’s election, paving the way for then-candidate Bolsonaro’s win and four years of far-right politics.
Polls closed at 4pm eastern time, and because the vote is conducted electronically, initial results are out quickly and final results are usually available a few hours later.
Bolsonaro had been leading throughout the first half of the count and, as soon as da Silva overtook him, cars in the streets of downtown Sao Paulo began honking their horns.
People in the streets of Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema neighborhood could be heard shouting, “It turned!”
At Mr. da Silva’s headquarters in downtown Sao Paulo, people refrained from celebrating until a respected pollster, Datafolha, projected he had won; then they erupted in cheers.
Outside Mr. Bolsonaro’s home in Rio de Janeiro, ground-zero for his support base, a woman atop a truck delivered a prayer over a speaker, then sang excitedly, trying to generate some energy. But supporters decked out in the green and yellow of the flag barely responded. Many perked up when the national anthem played, singing along loudly with hands over their hearts.
In the first round of voting, on October 2, the first half of votes tallied likewise showed Mr. Bolsonaro ahead, with Mr. da Silva pulling ahead later after votes from his strongholds were counted. Both men are well-known, divisive political figures who stir passion as much as loathing.
